


Autumn on the winding road

by sarensen



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Road Trip, brief Mystique cameo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 04:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6940075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarensen/pseuds/sarensen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story in moments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Autumn on the winding road

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during their mutant-hunt cum road trip.

This is what they have: Charles talks about chess and philosophy and the meaning of colours, and Erik watches the clouds in the sky and thinks 'I wish _forever_ was this easy.'

It shouldn't have been this easy, but they're drawn together with the grace of shifting continents and the same immensity.

They have the smile in Charles' eyes and the way his name sounds when Erik says it. It shouldn't be this overwhelming, like not breathing would be easier. But it is, and they don't fight it, because when Erik asks, "Where do you want to go next?" Charles replies, "Everywhere." and it doesn't matter to either of them. 

They have seconds sliding into the driving spray of a shower seven degrees too hot because that's how Erik likes it, and it makes Charles' lips feel cool, hands slipping on Erik's chest (toes curl).

Surreal, dragging time as Erik's fingers trace maps on Charles' veins, tiny rivers and estuaries of life, his heartbeat in the hair-fine ridges of fingerprints all over his body.

It's the violence of Erik, the delight of him, clouding around Charles like waves of silk, if the touch of silk has ever been so euphoric. And if Charles is to be honest it isn't unlike eating the last cookie from the jar - sweet, but with a lingering sense of regret he can't place.

They have hours in a rental car and days-nights-days of empty road and bad takeout, and if Erik could bottle moments, he'd have rows and rows of multi-coloured bottles labelled, "how Charles laughs even when the joke isn't funny" and "the way he looks at 2AM".

The slowly-unfolding pages of their story reads like every bad romance novel ever written, but that's okay, because if the world ends right now it wouldn't be so terrible; they're together and they'll have been together forever (three weeks, two days and eight hours).

The pauses between Charles' words when he's angry, the way he exhales emotion and the war in his eyes between wanting to understand and refusing to compromise; these too are precious to Erik.

And there are moments when Erik yells back and old habits die hard and he goes away, but there are other moments, softer moments, when Charles finds him - _I will always find you_ \- and there's a kiss and his pale cheek pressed against Erik's.

But most times they don't need to speak, and the silence between them says it all anyway.

And by the time it all ends, it's too late and they've both gone too far, given too much.

This is what they had: moments like bubbles, isolated and oil-shine transient, perfect right until they burst. It's in the way the light in Charles' eyes dies, and in the bruises on Erik's knees where he fell on the sand, and when he asks Mystique, "Where do you want to go next?" she doesn't reply at all.

**Author's Note:**

> In the process of moving all my works over to AO3.  
> This was originally posted on Livejournal here: http://sarensen.livejournal.com/3436.html


End file.
